A Method To His Madness
by letscheertothis
Summary: A story of Dr. Harleen Quinzel and The Joker (;


"Ay! Come on 'arleen! Dollface, I can't wait all day for ya!"

A taxi cab horn pushed Harley to move faster as she stuck her feet into her heels. She held her bags as she balanced on one foot as she fixed the heel with her index finger. She hurriedly checked to see if she had all of her things. She took a deep breath and made her way out of her apartment. From her door she saw the taxi sitting outside, she wave at the driver and made her way to the curb, getting into the cab. Once inside she was greeted with Henry's words while she opened up her briefcase and pulled out a file.

"Jeez 'arley, you're killing me." The car pulled away from the curb and began to merge into the existing traffic. "Ya' lucky I was ya' fathers friend or ya'd never make on time anywhere."

Harley chuckled as she flipped through the papers in her file. "Ha, I love you too Henry."

"So, where is it that we're heading to today, you said it was different."

Harley bit her lip and looked up. "Well, it's still to arkham island, just to a different part of the island. I have to go to Arkham."

"Oh, Arkham, big shot I see." He shrugged. "Whatchya' doin' over there for?"

Harley glanced up from the file in her lap and peered over her glasses. "Oh, today is my first day with a criminal patient, my first interview."

"Hmm, that's excitin'." He glanced back at her through the rear view mirror. "Just tell me that you are at least goin' to be safe. If I eva' let anything happen to ya, you're parents would come back and kill me."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." She shook her head, while pushing up her glasses on her nose. "I'll be fine, I've been reading over the subjects file for months, not to mention that I've been studying other mentally unstable subjects for a day like this. There a gaurds all over the place...I'll be fine Henry." She looked back down at her file.

"Alright, alright. I believe ya'."

Harley kept her eyes down on her file, she was stress reading and she knew it. She enjoyed that Henry was talking to her, and giving her a distraction. However they were driving for a while without saying anything. She only broke away from her reading when she heard Henry curse. Her attention was pulled to look through the front window, seeing the stop light up ahead and the busy traffic around them.

She sighed, laughing nervously. "The perks of living in New York."

Henry chuckled. "Yeah, it's just peachy."

Harley shrugged. "Hey, no one ever said you had to be a taxi driver. Remember when I told you, you could be a police man."

"Hey, I'm just fine serving my civic duties in this cab right here." He rubbed the meter and laughed.

"At least you don't take your civil duties into your own hand like that...that night vigilante." She paused. "What's his name?"

"Oh, the big bat. Ya mean to say Batman?"

"Yes, that lunatic. Who's to say Henry, Gothams best taxi driver is not the caped crusader?"

Henry chuckled deeply, his head tilting back. "Yeah, but how are you going to call him the lunatic?" He shook his head. "I thought the lunatic's were the guys you like to study?"

Harley sighed and shook her head, closing her file, and glancing out the window. "No, the Batman is nothing like the subjects that I study."

"Alright you're the doc'."

They stayed quiet for some time while they slowly moved through the traffic. She glanced at her watch and chewed on her inner cheek. If this traffic didn't clear, she'd be late on her first day.

"So, Harleen," Henry began and Harley bit harder into her cheek. He always used her full name when he was serious. "When do I get to meet this fiancé of yours?"

"You'll meet him…" She said vaguely.

Henry tisked and shook his head. "Hey babygirl, you ain't getting away with this."

"Oh, I don't know what you mean Henry…" She tired to play if off.

"Well that's just too bad." He chuckled and drove ahead as the traffic started to move faster. "Anyways, you and ya' fiancé are going to come ova' to my house and you'll have dinner with me and Maggie. No boy is going to snatch up my niece without uncle Henry meetin' the little punk."

Harley raised her brow. "Well if you call him a little punk, I don't think he'll be so inclined to want to come over. How am I supposed to convince I'm your an uncle, I told him my parents didn't have any siblings."

"Ay, you're the shrink, play with his head, you'll get 'em to do it." He didn't let her speak before he began again. "Now, you'll come over on saturday night at seven, we'll cook ya' dinner and get to know each other."

The cab finally pulled up to the entrance of the Asylum, and he stopped the car. He leaned back to look at her and he smiled.

"It'll be harmless, okay? Now, get outta here before ya' late."

Harley smiled and listened to him, and before she got out of the cab she grabbed her wallet. Henry spoke up to stop her.

"No, I got this one 'arley, don't worry about it."

Harley sighed, she hated when he did things like that. But, she just nodded. "Okay Henry, I'll pay you back somehow, I swear."

"Whatever you say kiddo, now get outta here." He waved her off. "And good luck."

Harley just nodded and exited the cab, and watched it drive off. It only took her just a moment to realize that she was very late. She checked her watch and then scurried over to the security box next to the gate. The blond female explained who she was and why she was here. They simply called other guards on a radio and she waited anxiously. It only took a few minutes but to her stress it felt like hours. How on earth would it look if she was more than ten minutes late on her first day? She got into the car that came to transfer her to the actual asylum doors. Again, the few minutes it took just made her stomach twinge with worry. She took deep breaths and picked at her nails, a very bad and old habit. She glanced at the guards that were with her in the back and they both glanced at each other. It was quiet till one of them spoke up.

"Not to be rude miss but, my partner here wanted to know, what's a woman, like yourself doing at arkham, huh?"

Harley quit playing with her nails and she offered a smile. "Psychiatric doctor…I'm here for my very first interview."

The two guards nodded and the other spoke up.

"Just be careful okay? These criminals would eat you right up if you try to stray by yourself."

The first guard hit the him in the arm. "Hey, Garcia, don't scare the lady."

He glanced back and her as the van came to a stop. "Don't worry, you'll have guards with you the whole time you're here, you won't be in any danger. I promise, Mrs. Quinzell."

"Thank you...um, what's your name?"

He moved to show his badge on his uniform. "It's Anderson, uh, Jason Anderson."

After her told her his name, the other guard pulled him out of the van.

"Come on Romeo."

Jason motioned for her to get out as well and assisted her out. The guard called Garcia tisked at her as she stepped down.

"You wore heels, you'll have to take those off." He glanced her over fully as they walked towards the entrance. "Oh, you'll have to take off a lot of things."

Jason rolled his eyes as he lead her into the door. "Don't worry, they'll just keep them until you're done. If your going to work here however you may want to think otherwise."

The two guards led her through security. They checked everything she had and made her walk through a metal detector. It made her stomach turn even more, it was wasting so much time. After the search she was allowed her things back and was able to move on with the two guards. They lead her down a few halls and then they came across another set of guards and two doctors. The male doctor spoke first.

"Hello, Mrs. Quinzell, I'm doctor Fisher, this is doctor Cassidy."

"Hello, Im sorry I'm so late, the traffic was terrible. I know it's no excuse but I really had no control over it and..."

Doctor Cassidy just smiled and offered her the white lab coat and name tag she had in her arms. "You're just fine, we wouldn't have let you go in right away, we want to make the subject wait."

Harley took the coat and slipped it on, and then clipped the tag onto the pocket. She was relieved that they were not going to make a deal of her being late. She gave her bag to Garcia, as Dr. Fisher instructed. Then they gave her a pair of flats to replace her heels.

"We'll let you go inside first and then guards will bring him in. Anderson will be in the room the whole time with you, incase he's needed. We're sure you'll be just fine with this subject."

Harley looked at Jason and then noded. "Alright, thank you." She took her file and a clipboard and stepped into the small room. She sat down at the chair and glanced over the information in front of her. She watched as Jason stood behind her. She was left to wait, left to feel the many butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. She glanced at the recorder on the table and pressed record.

"This is interview one, Doctor Quinzell interviewing subject patient 9618."

After she said this, she seemed to all of a sudden felt extremely confident, all her worry faded. Even when she heard the door open and watched two guards come in to sit the subject down, she straightened her back and adjusted her glasses. She let the two guards leave and she nodded to the man sitting across from her.

"Hello, subject 9618…" She glanced down at the file and glanced back up. "I'm Dr. Quinzell, I'll be having these interviews with you from now on after whatever it was that you did to the previous doctor."

The subject laughed, a peculiar laugh and she looked up at him. His laugh alone sounded like that of a mad man, it almost gave chills up her spine. She however kept talking.

"Okay, so we're going to start with something that I've found very interesting, something that I've been wanting to ask you. That is, why do you go by this name...the name of The Joker?"


End file.
